Major General Edwin Anderson Walker was a highly decorated United States Army officer who fought in World War II and the Korean War. He became known for his ultra-conservative political views and was criticized by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower for promoting a personal political stand while in uniform.

Walker resigned his commission in 1959, but Eisenhower refused to accept his resignation and gave Walker a new command over the 24th Infantry Division in Augsburg, Germany. Walker again resigned his commission in 1961 after being publicly and formally admonished by the Joint Chiefs of Staff for calling Eleanor Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman "pink" in print and for violating the Hatch Act by attempting to direct the votes of his troops. President John F. Kennedy accepted his resignation, making Walker the only US General to resign in the 20th century.

In early 1962 Walker ran for governor of Texas and lost in the Democratic primary election to the eventual winner, John Connally. In October 1962, Walker was arrested for leading riots at the University of Mississippi in protest against admitting a black student, James Meredith, into the all-white university. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy ordered Walker committed to a mental asylum for a 90-day evaluation in response to his role in the Ole Miss riot of 1962, but psychiatrist Thomas Szasz protested and Walker was released in five days. Attorney Robert Morris convinced a Mississippi grand jury not to indict Walker.

Walker was the target of an assassination attempt on April 10, 1963, that has been linked to Lee Harvey Oswald. The attacks on United Nations Ambassador Adlai Stevenson on October 24, 1963, were traced to plans organized by Edwin Walker and his followers among the John Birch Society, according to the November issue of the Texas Observer. One month later, the Black-bordered Ad and the "Wanted for Treason: JFK" handbills of November 22, 1963, appeared on the streets of Dallas. They were traced to Edwin Walker and his associates by the Warren Commission. From the period of President Kennedy's assassination forward, Walker wrote and spoke publicly about his belief that there were two assassins at his "April Crime", Oswald, and another one never found.